Table 2 Roles of the Host Organization

1

1.1

Conduct large-scale context-specific research into the design of mentorship programs.

[7, 26,27,28,29, 148, 150, 151]

1.2

Consider collaborative ventures with other organizations to pool resources in the implementation of a large-scale and high-impact mentoring program. This may increase the applicability of the program to a variety of settings as context-specific considerations are made during the designing process.

[7, 24, 26,27,28,29, 151]

1.3

Recruitment of suitable and willing mentors, near-peers and mentees and establishing mentor and mentee registries.

[7, 26,27,28,29, 107, 110, 112, 122, 125, 130, 134, 145, 151, 152]

1.4

Establish the overall mentoring structure, process, content, guidelines, codes of conduct and standards of practice to prevent ethical, legal and professional lapses and misconduct among mentors, near-peers and mentees and reduce the risk of mentoring abuse.

[7, 24, 26,27,28,29,30, 59, 98, 101,102,103,104,105,106, 108, 109, 111,112,113,114, 120, 122, 124, 125, 127,128,129,130,131, 134,135,136,137, 145, 146, 149, 151, 153,154,155,156,157,158,159,160]

1.5

Facilitate matching of mentors, near-peers and mentees.

[7, 20, 24, 26,27,28,29, 92, 102, 107, 110, 112, 122, 125, 134, 139, 144, 148, 150,151,152, 159]

1.6

Provide periodic reminders to mentors, near-peers and mentees to encourage regular meetings.

[134, 141, 144, 152].

1.7

Sustain mentoring programs by providing financial, administrative, logistical support, thereby sustaining a suitable mentoring environment.

These include:

- protected mentoring time [7, 26,27,28,29,30, 59, 89, 111, 122, 124, 125, 127, 131, 136, 148, 150, 151, 153,154,155] for minimum meeting frequencies to be achieved comfortably [30, 100, 108, 109, 113, 119, 122, 123, 125, 130, 134, 145, 146, 149, 153, 154]

- formal recognition for mentors’ and mentees’ efforts [7, 24, 26,27,28,29, 151, 159] through promotions, awards, and reduced workloads [7, 24, 26,27,28, 151, 159].

- independent, fair and transparent recognition for near-peers [110, 111, 122, 131]

- coordinate the various stages of mentoring [7, 24, 26,27,28, 151, 159]

- create a safe environment for mentees to voice their concerns and feedback, forward ideas and share experiences [7, 24, 26,27,28, 124, 134, 151, 159]

- providing suitable mentoring environments for interprofessional collaboration on research and academic projects [26, 27, 151, 159]

- introducing the use of electronic platforms for mentoring such as e-mail [85, 152, 158], social networking [14, 103, 104, 111, 116, 119, 122, 130, 136, 145, 157], instant messaging, tele-conferencing, discussion forums and micro-blogging [14, 85, 99, 100, 104, 105, 111, 116, 119, 122, 123, 128, 129, 134, 135, 146, 153, 155, 157, 161,162,163], and to put in place proper security measures such as end-to-end encryptions to these platforms and resources [99, 108, 119, 152, 153]

[7, 24, 26,27,28,29,30, 59, 111, 122, 124, 125, 127, 131, 134, 136, 151, 153,154,155, 159]

2

2.1

Evaluation of the need, skills and knowledge of mentors, near-peers and mentees.

[100, 120, 122, 127, 130, 135, 146]

2.2

Organize training programs for mentors, near-peers and mentees including

- leadership skills [122, 131]

- communication and collaborative skills [7, 111, 122, 127, 129, 131, 136]

- team management skills [111, 129, 131]

- navigating challenging situations [154]

- providing timely, effective and holistic support [7]

- nurturing effective mentor-mentee relationships [154]

- assessing mentees [7, 108, 120, 122, 134]

- providing feedback [7, 108, 120, 122, 134]

- establishing codes of conduct and standards of practice

- promoting interprofessional teamwork [7, 24, 26,27,28,29, 89, 148, 150, 151, 159]

- teaching electronic etiquette [99, 108, 119, 152, 153] cyberspace security and online professionalism [14, 98, 99, 101, 104, 105, 108, 114, 120, 125, 128].

[7, 27,28,29, 108, 111, 120, 122, 127, 129, 131, 134,135,136, 140, 145, 148, 150, 154]

3

3.1

Evaluate mentors’, near-peers’ and mentees’ constantly evolving needs, goals and abilities [30, 100, 108, 109, 113, 122, 125, 130, 146, 153], mentoring effectiveness and efficiency, relationships, approaches and environment [7, 24, 26,27,28,29,30, 108, 122, 131, 136, 151, 159].

[7, 24, 26,27,28,29,30, 100, 108, 109, 113, 122, 125, 130, 131, 136, 146, 151, 153, 159]

3.2

Conduct post-mentoring evaluation.

[20, 24, 26,27,28,29,30, 85, 88, 95,96,97,98,99,100, 107, 108, 110,111,112, 115, 122,123,124,125,126,127,128,129,130,131, 134,135,136, 144,145,146, 149, 151,152,153, 156,157,158,159, 163, 164]